i approve this message so you'll know i'm fighting for you. esday morning, the 21st of september, 2010. warming up nicely. in the mid 70s today? >> i'm matt lauer along with al roker and tamron hall. we're going to talk more about this acid hoax, a woman claims that someone else threw acid in her face when in fact she did it to herself. she allegedly took tens of

thousands or dollars from her community who tried to help her. also ahead, you hear those ads on tv and radio, especially during this economy, companies promising to help get you out of debt. you may be able to get yourself out of the financial hole it could end up saving you thousands of dollars in fees. and new rules for consumers because a lot of those consum consumers -- joy bauer is going to be here to talk about the best yogurts for your kids growing up. and whether food should be considered a free food. and first as we mentioned, ann has the morning off, we have got a check of the top stories. >> nine american service members were killed this morning when their helicopter went down in southeastern afghanistan. it was the deadliest chopper crash in more than four years for nato forces.

u.s. officials declaims by the taliban that insurgents shot down that helicopter. commanders waited two hours before calling for outside help sunday. the fast moving brush fire, by last night three homes had been destroyed. 5,000 people had to be evacuated and a fire only 25% contained. a woman in washington state who claimed that someone threw acid at her and then later admitted she did it herself is facing criminal charges. kristen welker has details. kristen, good morning. >>. >> reporter: bethany storro is charged with three counts of theft for allegedly taking money from the community who was trying to help her pay her medical bills. now the county prosecutor says she has to pay. bethany storro claimed she was the victim of a vicious acid attack, but prosecutors say storro was no victim. they say the community was duped

and donated nearly $30,000 to help pay her medical bills. >> it was clear from the evidence that we had multiple felony crimes that were committed and it seemed like a straight forward decision that felony charges should be filed. >> reporter: last month storro told police that a woman she didn't know approached her and threw acid in her face, burned and bandaged, she spoke out in an emotional news conference at the hospital. >> i didn't know what this person did to me. >> reporter: but last week, police say the 28-year-old vancouver washington woman admitted the trauma was self-inflected, the whole ordeal a hoax. doctors and police were skeptical of storro's story as they investigated, her burn pattern was even as if the acid had been applied to her face rather than thrown as she claimed. there were no splash marks on

her body or clothes and no physical evidence at the scene. according to the arrest warrant, storro confessed the burns were self-inflicted and came from drain cleaner she purchased at a hardware store. the lingering question, why? storro told police she first watched to kill herself, but when she realized that wasn't working she used the drain cleaner to change her appearance. she said she thought maybe this is the answer to all my problems, just to have a different face. this is one of the many people who prosecutors say was a victim of storro's story, he raised and donated hundreds of dollars to help her. >> i didn't think anyone is really mad, at what she did, just more sad, because why would somebody really do that to themselves? >> storro's parents are also baffled and heart broken. they have pledged to make things right. >> all money will be returned in the appropriate manner, that will be guaranteed.

>> reporter: now storro reportedly spent about $1,500 of the donated money on dinners, train tickets and even purchases at target. her friends say she's checked herself into a local hospital for treatment and is expected to face her charges when she's released. tamron? >> thank you, kristen. a california judge has issued a warrant for lindsay lohan after she admitted failing a drug test, she'll remain free at least until a hearing friday. and officials are trying to find out why a spectator stand collapsed a a car race sending people crashing to the ground and injuring 100 of them. it is now five past the hour, let's get another check of the weather from al. >> tamron, thanks a lot. and as we go and show you what your weather's like at the top of the hour, you've got some storms working their way through the upper midwest and the great lakes, severe thunderstorm watches up earlier, those have now since been dropped. clouds in the pacific northwest. up and down the eastern

seaboard, going to be a gorgeous day. we still have to worry about rip currents all the way to the mid-atlantic states, heat throughout the southeast, where temperatures could break records all the way from the gulf coast on up into the ohio river valley, sunshine out west, 72 degrees in los angeles, bus some morning fog giving way to plenty of sunshine, that's >> good morning, everyone. we're off to a quiet start, but we're ofp quickly.et start, but high temperatures will

>> this morning on joy's diet s.o.s., registered dietitian and nutritionist joy bauer is helpihelp ihelp -- we have an interesting question from zoe. she's joining us live via skype. what's your question? >> i was recently diagnosed with pcls. i'm a healthy 35-year-old and feel devastated with the possibility of getting heart disease, diabetes and complications in pregnancy with the help of medication, any nutritional help would be much appreciated in my new battle against this syndrome. >> zoe, we really feel for you with this situation. tell folks who don't know, what's pcls? >> it's formally known as polly cystic ovarian syndrome and it affects many, many women. the good news is that there are

a lot of things you can do nutritionally to help level out your insulin and your blood sugar levels. the first thing i'm going to tell you is to exercise every single day. we all know that exercise boosts your immune system and helps to burn calories, but it also helps to normalize insulin and blood sugar. so even if you just walk 30 minutes every single day, you will get huge benefits from that. when it comes to the food, you have to be strategic with carbohydrates and there are three carb rules. the first is you want to pick the high quality carbs versus the poor quality carbs and that's because white bread and white flower and crackers and bagels and soda with rapidly spike your blood sugar. the high quality carbs only, the second carb rule is to moderate all carbs.

instead of having a huge pasta entree, you want to have a small sized portion. you can fill in the blanks with protein and vegetables. a couple of those healthy carbs with protein. protein helps to bond the absorption of carbohydrates so you're going to have nice even keeled blood sugars and insulin. exercise, be strategic with your carbs and it's going to help tremendously. >> feel better. >> thank you. >> now let's go to marsha, she's on the phone from chandler, arizona. marsha, good morning, what's your question? >> good morning, al, good morning, joy. my question is, when you're trying to lose weight by counting calories, are fruits and vegetables free food or do you count those calories as well? >> good question. >> a free food? >> well, i consider nonsar chy

vegetables because they only contain about 10 to 15 calories as long as you're not soaking them in butter, oil or other high cal ingredients. but on the other hand, the starchy vegetables, peas, corn, potatoes, winter squash and fruit, they have more calories per cup, they're more calorie dense, and those things you do have to put towards your daily allotment. you got to count them. >> but still, don't do juices if you're going to have the fruit, if you're going to have the fruit, have the actual fruit. >> fruit is calorically dense. >> this is coming from carmen in montgomery, alabama. joy, what should i look for in a healthy yogurt to feed any 2-year-old. all the other varieties are filled with sugar and i don't

want to give my toddler light varieties with the extra sugar. >> they need the extra fat and calories for growth and brain development. once your kids hit two, you buy nonfat or low fat yogurt. it's a crazy confusing story, instead of trying to read every single label and differentiate between the natural occurring sugar and the naturally occurring stir. for six ounce containers you want no more than 20 grams of sugar, for a four ounce containers you want no more than 14 grams of sugar. and there are a lot of great varieties, sunnyvale farms has things that are great for toddlers and children. brown cow, oyoplait. but you can buy a cream nonfat yogurt, you could add your own

chopped fruit, and if you wanted a little bit sweeter than that, just one teaspoon of added sugar or honey or maple syrup. and ta-dah. >> joy bauer. thanks so much. and we'll see you a little bit later on coming up. you've got the joy fit club. right now, how to get yourself out of debt and protect your money. and we're going to check out the best beauty products hand picked by allure magazine. [ female announcer ] stay once...

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this morning on "today's" money, debt settlement companies, their ads promise to reduce your debt, but many of them end up taking your money up front and leaving your worse off than you were before. now the ftc is cracking down, so what do you need to know? bob sullivan, an nbc correspondent and author of "stop getting ripped off" and jean chats sky. the ftv, which is the federal trade commission, they are instituted these new laws. can you tell us a little bit more about these laws? >> the laws that go into effect at the end of this month and into next month basically say they can't charge you up front fees and if they do charge you a fee, you have to know what it is, how long it's going to take you to go through the program and what will be the impact on your financial life and your credit if you choose to do it. >> and this is i guess a big deal because some of these companies take advantage of people, as we said, you end up in a worse position than you were from the start, you end up

worse off. >> that's absolutely right, 2/3 of these people who go through these programs never end up settling even one debt. >> you have a number of reports on these companies and what have you found as a repeated trend. >> what they do is they tell people to stop paying their bills which seems like crazy advice and instead put the money into a separate account, and theoretically you're going to build up a big kitty, but the vast majority of the time these people are really on their last few dollars and they end up faking the last few dollars people have. a chicago teacher was $36,000 in debt. and a year later, after he paid all their fees, $5,000 in fee, and he's been sued by several of his debtors, he owed $60,000. the choices you make at this point when you're struggling like this, it's so important to make the right choice. >> speaking of choices, jean, there are three different ways to help you get out of debt, a debt settlement, secret

counseling and bankruptcily. >> a credit counseling company will essentially charge you a small up front fee and then a monthly fee and put you into what's called a debt management program where they have prenegotiated lower interest rates with your creditors of about 6%, if you've got any late fees or overlimit fees waved, it's a lot of work, credit counseling and debt management. debt settlement, up front fees, typically, and then they ask you to stop paying your bills and bankruptcy, everybody sort of understands what that is, but it's not the easy fix that it used to be, you still will have to repay the money in some form. >> bob, you're concerned with these new laws from the ftc that some of these debt settlement places will already have invested in. >> we have seen a lot of companies that are going to leave the business because they can't charge those big up front fees anymore. so the question is if you're in the middle of one of these programs right now?

who has control of your money. some states have rules. in illinois they require company to put it in an escrow account. so there's a way for you to get these -- these companies are on the run right now. >> let's talk about some things that people can do on their own and not have to worry about these companies, first tackle one debt at a time. >> you can settle your debts yourself. you don't need -- you don't need to have a company to do this for you. and you will end up doing it in much the same way that these companies do, you tackle one at a time because they want a sum of money to settle that particular debt in a particular day. so you make the phone call, you tackle one at a time and you make them an offer. >> start with the bills you're already late on? >> because those bills have already gone delinquent so those creditors are more likely to negotiate with you. >> and make an offer? negotiating, everything is about negotiating. >> what jean said is the most important thing, you can do so much of this yourself. take charge of your finances, don't listen to those late-night

ads, don't will be to offers that are too good to be true. make an offer and see what happens. >> know the down side, you're already in debt, but that is the down side. >> if you are allowed to get out of a particular debt, you could be taxed on that money as income. very important to understand that that could be coming at you from the back end. >> important. this is an important issue and timely with so many people facing financial hardships, millions of americans out of a job, which is something that a lot of folks need to hear. thank you very much jean and bob. coming up, from dull pots and pans to the odor coming from the inside of your dishwasher. solutions to the most common kitchen problems. first these messages. s, and our family has owned five camrys. i drove the '92 camry. i drive a 2007 camry. i was expecting the 2005 camry, and my sister got it.

i was driving the '94 toyota camry, and my dad surprised me with a 2005 toyota camry. [ julie sighs ] i drove all of them, but i drive the 2009. [ interviewer ] why camry? reliability. yeah. affordability. [ male announcer ] share your toyota story on facebook.com/toyota. [ male announcer ] share your toyota story hey, you guys. want to try activia's great new taste? isn't this the yogurt that, you know... helps regulate your digestive system. trust me. it is beyond tasty. mmm. this is really good! new best tasting activia ever! ♪ activia ♪ ♪ hey, now, now, we're going down, down ♪ ♪ and we'll ride the bus there ♪ pay the bus fare ♪ or we find a new reason [ female announcer ] something unexpected

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so skin can replenish itself. to bring the family together on sunday mornings than with the warmth and aroma of freshly baked pillsbury cinnamon rolls. [ wink! ] [ wink! ] ♪

still to come, the best of beauty. "allure" magazine's top ticks. nobody's more fun than jill, but first your local news and weather. 3q

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so let's continue to make a difference one lid at a time. old gibbs canning company. today these factories are full of dot com businesses. and now my job is helping maryland create new economy jobs. training new math and science teachers investing in our institutions of excellence pioneering new cyber security jobs and giving an old gm plant a jump start

building electric motors. i'm barbara mikulski. i approve this message so you'll know i'm fighting for you.

>> live, local, late breaking this is a wbal tv 11 news update. >> it was a warm up quickly as we go through the day. high temperatures between 77 and 82 degrees. the temperatures will be in the mid-80's all the way through friday with a chance of

. all right, take a look. what do you think? let's show you our lovely "today" wedding couple. melissa and jeremy. here they are. last week jeremy came home from serving in afghanistan just in time for, guess what? to pick the location of the reception, the wedding dress and the tux. >> apparently it's very close, so every vote count that is point. you have until 1:00 p.m. eastern time to get your vote in. "today" we're voting on the bridesmaid dresses.

from shredding the guitar. >> i guess that's like playing? >> shredding the guitar, on a t-shirt. >> take a look at joe right now. >> she's shredding a guitar. i love it. we have also got a candy dispenser that delivers your treats with a wave of your hand. here's the latest collection of fun finds. >> jill always brings the best stuff. and then "allure" magazine is out with its best of beauty issue. i live for this issue. it's sampled more than 200 products from cleansers to eye creams and lipsticks. they have tested it all. we're going to show you some of the best of the best and several categories we're covering. >> cool. all right. and of course our favorite fix it guy is here, he's got solutions to every day kitchen problems. everything from bringing back old cutting boards to getting the smell out of sponges or you can throw them out.

and making your pots and pans shine. lou is going to show us some easy and inexpensive fixes. what are you doing there, lou? what was that. >> you'll have to watch. >> okay. >> he's got a toothpick and he's not afraid to use it. >> he's going to put it in his mouth. oh, that's wrong. >> but first a check of the weather. >> we'll show you for "today," we have got showers and storms, risk of strong storms from the mid plains back into the upper ohio river valley, clouds in the pacific northwest, thundershowers down through texas. and tomorrow we have got rain from the northeast all the way back into the central plains, a slight risk there. hot in the southwest, heavy rain throughout much of the lower southwest. runny and hot with hit or miss >> good morning, everyone.

we're off to a cool start, but it will warm up. we will see plenty of sunshine. this >> you know, we were about to do a tease with jill martin about some of the unusual products. show us what you're doing there. >> bottle opener and remote. and now i'm soaked. >> up next, jill's got some of the most unusual products on the market. and we need a sponge from lou's segment. yeah! over a restaurant er 2nd we took

just for a day. then we made lunch for the neighbors. thousands of turkey burgers on us. to show people there's a burger that's as lean as it is delicious. it's really good. he loves the turkey burgers. if i can give her something that's good for her and lean, i'd totally make this for her. ancr: make the switch. look for jennie-o at a store near you. hey, you guys. want to try activia's great new taste? isn't this the yogurt that, you know... helps regulate your digestive system. trust me. it is beyond tasty. mmm. this is really good! new best tasting activia ever! ♪ activia challenge the need for such heavy measures with olay. new regenerist micro-sculpting serum for firmer skin in 5 days. pretty heavy lifting for such a lightweight. [ female announcer ] olay regenerist.

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but we lost today. no, we didn't... ♪ we're the kids in america ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ we're the kids in america ♪ oh, oh, oh stay twice... earn a free night! two separate stays at comfort inn or any of these choice hotels can earn you a free night -- only when you book at choicehotels.com. if you're looking for a dream remote control for your

couch potato. jill martin's found some gadgets. >> good morning. >> good morning, okay, let's get started. i love this shirt. >> thinkgeek.com. $29. let's go to jerry because he's already demoing it. jerry has the shirt on and it is a guitar, built into the t-shirt. >> he's really getting into it. it comes with a little speaker system and the pick and you can get going. he's very into this. >> the ungrateful dead. >> and i heard there's a drum kit version too? >> great for your kids and clearly for adults too. >> absolutely. >> this is space cadets, 27 zlrz. these are all the hottest shoes for kids. and all the different animals and look at the little cowboy boots down here. aren't those cute? and all the recent socks so a great gift. >> you want to get your favorite treats out, but you don't want

to spend a lot of time doing it. >> not only a lot of time, but you don't want a lot or a medium or a little. it gives you different amounts. it can give you a little amount or you can put it to a lot. so it will give you different amounts of jelly beans of m&m's. i thought we could get through one. but i knew. okay, this is great, let's say u year entertaining and you don't want to put an ice bucket out. this is chilled, you put it in the freezer for six hours, will it cool the wine, so when you're pouring the glass, it comes at the right temperature, this is great, it doesn't really intrude on your center fees of your dinner. >> we have video of you looking foolish. >> we always love that. this is a remote, a universal remote with a built in bottle opener. >> this is greet for this, as

you said, resident couch potato. and this is general's supply.com 24.50. how cool is that? i know, you're not getting old, you just can't hear. okay, okay, okay. will this work? you vote in all your music and you're going by screen or you're running, the music will be built into that. >> what do we have here? >> if we could dim the lights for a moment, i have your big bird movie actually on. this projects, this is from book stone and you just take your ipod and it will project the movie either on to a ceiling or a wall so if you're camping or you just have a wall at night and you just want to watch, how

great is this? >> that's pretty neat. >> and now the next big thing. this is the playstation room for playstation 3. p it's the first game that really allows you, you see the motion detector? and these are all the newest games. so this is playstation, so you see us there. and the camera is right there. so those are all my new fun times. >> it looks like i have already playeded the game. >> i hate to tell you, that's why i picked that game. just so you could practice. >> all right, joe martin, thank you. up next, "allure" magazine

picked this year's best right after these messages. jennifer hudson here. before weight watchers, my world was can't. can't eat this. can't do that. can't lose weight. but on weight watchers, i can. weigh less than i did in high school. can. stand here not suckin' in a thing. sure can. lose weight, and feel lighter and liberated in so many ways. i can. and you can too. and you can join for free. ♪ i can. i can. i can. ♪ [ female announcer ] and, if you join by september 25th you can get get a month free. weight watchers. because it works.

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with the zero liability guarantee from bank of america. [ male announcer ] activia is better than ever! less about fraud hey, you guys. want to try activia's great new taste? isn't this the yogurt that, you know... helps regulate your digestive system. ooh, i think i'll pass. no, no, no! trust me. it is beyond tasty. mmm! wow! i can't believe it, i love it! mmm, this is really good! new best tasting activia ever! ♪ activia now you can join the fight against breast cancer every time you enjoy an activia. give hope with every cup of activia. carol almost told evan that there are vegetables in the chef boyardee. so she's in a time-out. [ female announcer ] chef boyardee micro beef ravioli microwave cups. with a full serving of vegetables.

just don't tell them. shh. this morning on "today's" beauty, the experts at "allure" magazine spent months sifting through thousands of products testing every cream, cleanser and color they could find and now the results are in. here is editor-in-chithe editor. tell us a little bit about the process of how you narrow it down. >> there were 14,000 new beauty and grooming products introduced last year. so we test for six months, we test on everybody, different ages, different hair types, skin types, skin colors, then we come

down to the list, we talk to cosmetic chemists and determine toll lists. >> bottom line you take it pretty seriously. first up we're looking at hair and you found some that were innovative, break through award winners. what do you have? >> pan tent spent years and -- they have found out that each hair as different characteristics and different problems. so this is pan teen prov solutions. this one happens to be for medium and thick hair, which tends to take too much moisture from the environment, gets frizzy and breaks. this has ingreed negligents that seal the cuticle and adds moisture. >> you have another winner in the hair die form that? this is from l'oreal. you have to go to the salon to get this done. usually hair die uses ammonia, which damages your hair, stains and can be awful. this penetrates deeply into the hair cuticle.

ask if they have it. it stays fresher longer, it doesn't stain so bad and it stays longer. >> and finding the red lipstick that looks best on you, it's pretty tough. >> the problem is it can be too orange or too blue or it can make your skin look dull. it looks good on every different kind of skin color and lip color. >> and you have our lip gloz winner here. >> lip glosses are great, but they tend to have too little pigments so they disappear immediately. it's a plum color which is great for fall and it really is rich in pigment. >> what's in still is really rich looking lips. >> but the nice thing is to get the gloss too that goes along with it. >> mascara can run you about $30

these days. >> it can be very expensive. this one is not expensive. it's called volume express. >> and it's $7. >> it has a curved brush so it hits every single lash and it also has fibers in it that adhere to your lash and makes them fatter, and in this case, fatter is better, so this is a wonderful mascara. >> and this is eye liner? >> this is a covergirl liquid line blast, it's a pencil, so it goes on easily, it smudges, so it has the benefits of a liquid liner, it's a wonderful product. >> it's waterproof as well? >> waterproof. >> nice. on to skin and what do you have here? >> this is a cleanser, it's from ascreen know positively raid yens, it removes your makeup. so you dry your face and you've got mascara all over your towel. >> and then sunscreen?

>> usually sunscreens are very thick and gummy. this is sp f-60 which is really high. but it's liquidy, it used to be only available in the u.s. it looks great under makeup and it's guaranteeded anti-aging. >> and cheap thrills. >> we did products all under $9. this is sally hansen, it's for everything, your lips your feet, your hair. >> and aquaphor. >> thank you very much for and for a list of all of these 232 best of beauty winners, check out the october issue of "allure" magazine. >> common problems inside your kitchen, but first this is "today" on nbc. tax on everything you buy?

that's in andy harris' unfair tax plan. 23% sales tax. a 23% sales tax will cut my business in half. would be devastating. andy harris' 23% sales tax absolutely makes no sense. 23% sales tax would really make things unaffordable. that's too high for the average american out here. i don't know how we would manage it really. don't like that idea. we can't afford andy harris' idea. i'm frank kratovil and i approve this message.

this morning on "today's" home kitchen, let's face it the most used room in the house, and every day wear and tear can take their toll on your tools and your appliances. we have the host of the syndicated show house wears. you know, relatively easy fixes. >> correct. >> starting with cutting boards. and, again, we have seen a lot of like these new materials. >> sure. >> but they cost money. and a wood cutting board looks great. a lot of people don't know this. do not soak this in a sink, because it's glued wood and what happens is it starts to celebrate. it can get a little old and tired, to really preserve it, all you need is mineral oil. mineral oil you're saying use on your counter tops at your house. this is a terrific moisturizer for the wood itself. take a paper towel, the color comes back, not unlike a moisturizer you would use on

your skin and helps it preserve the wood and makes it last longer. >> when you get the cuts, you've got the grooves. >> you'll get some of that away and it will brighten it back up. you don't have to invest in as many cutting boards and they'll last longer and save you money. >> getting your pots clean? >> we want it nice and clean on the backside. i was a bartender years ago. >> really? >> it's hard to believe, and i found this product, bar keeper's friend which is still out there. this, we spent a little bit of time with a scotch bright pad. and you will see that all of this comes off with a little elbow grease and for cooking, you like to cook as well, you have this funk on your pans, you don't get even heating, it works better if it's clean. sponges. go ahead and say it. >> why don't you just throw them away. >> you can throw them away, but these start to smell.

this is a louf fa sponge. somebody would say, yeah, we could throw it away, but this one look like a caret. those are loufa. they're really good at scrubbing, you can hang them in the sink so they don't smell and when you're done with them, you can throw them in your compost and put it back in your garden, because they're loufa. the soaps that we're using are changing formulas because they have to really reduce their phosphate. the big complaint from people saying they don't clean as well as they used to. we need to clean the dishwasher as well. one place where odor comes from is beneath this gas get. if you use a bleach cleaner or something like this that will go in there and hold on for about 20 minutes, then take a sponge and club all that away and rinse it, that will help protect the odor. inside, you want to run a

disinfect tachbt, a cleaner through the hottest setting you have in the dishwasher, if we could open up the ports in the dishwasher, it will work more fishtly. and with the new formulation of the soaps, you'll get cleaner dishes and no odor. >> what about hinges and stuff. >> down here low is where all this bacteria is. you see i can get my fingers back behind there? there's a gas get back there and there's funk back there. actually there's a lot of funk back there. >> we got to get that. >> that's the funk. >> you want to shake hands with tamron? >> okay, can you look inside here? this is my home made fruit fly thing. you can do this very inexpensively, this is apple cider and this is sir ran wrap, and you can get fruit flies, nobody wants to see this in their home. this is a fruit fly trap that you buy. pour this in. they go in there and you go everybody in the pool. and they don't come out.

>> still to come, members of joy's fit club. [ male announcer ] are you watching cable?

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it's time for fios. >> live, local, late breaking this is a wbal tv 11 news update. ." >> off to a quiet start, and temperatures will warm up quickly. we will be up close to 80 later on today with plenty of

sunshine. the high temperature is expected in the mid-